THE ALTAR AND THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE

^[p. 104] THE ALTAR AND THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE

I said a little yesterday morning (having read about the consecration of the priests from Leviticus 8) as to the difference between the altar and the door of the tabernacle. The former is a type of the cross, the latter of Christ’s presence. Christendom has not got beyond the altar — all that Christ has done for us. At the door of the tabernacle we are not occupied with our side, but we are appropriating the perfection and blessedness of Christ. There is a very great difference between the two places. When any one refers to himself and the work done for him, he is at the altar; when he is delighting and feeding on the preciousness of Christ he is at the door, he has entered on an entirely new sphere....

Surely, as we were saying together after breakfast, how much better and fuller the Lord has answered the desires of our hearts after Him than we had ever contemplated.

The priests accompanied Aaron into the holy places (not the holiest), fresh from the offerings (see Leviticus 8) on the altar of burnt offering, as it were entitling them to go in, and they entered only the figures of the true with Aaron. Now we begin with the Lord’s supper. We are remembering His love in His perfect work for us. We are full of Him who did the work, not as Aaron’s sons, full of the need of the work to be done. We are full of Him who finished the work, and who told out His own heart in doing it, and thus full of Him, we accompany Him in the holiest, the august scene where He is.

The meeting did not begin brightly. There was a weight, but afterwards, I think and trust many were cheered. I had the sense of His presence much at the breaking of bread. Afterwards I spoke from Matthew 18: 20. I ^[p. 105] gave three marks of His presence. 1. That I am absorbed in Him — beside myself; no spirit left in me. 2. Worship, my cup full, my tongue blesses Him, the Father, who has blessed me. 3. I am so controlled by His presence that I do His pleasure. I read about the two going to Emmaus, and in John 20: 21, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. Also of the three mighty men who were made acquainted with David’s desire for a drink of water after they had come to him. The heart, answering to His pleasure, is therefore a very great and distinct mark of being in His presence. To see thy beauty and thy glory as I have seen it in the sanctuary.